MailerMailer recently released it’s bi-annual email marketing metrics report with some interesting statistics on subject line length, open and click rates.

A few highlights from the report:

– 32.26% people are opening their email within the first two hours of receiving it. This compares with 29.40% a year ago. About 75% of all opens occur within the first 24 hours.

– The average open rate has declined a little, with it now standing at 13.20%, compared to 13.98% in the second half of 2007

– Click rates remain fairly static at around 2.73%

– In regards to the eternal question that seems to get a different answer in surveys performed by various companies, what are the best days to send, MailerMailer pegs them as Sundays and Mondays.

– The company found that the shorter the email subject line the better, however they do acknowledge this varies widely depending on the target groups.

– Personalization isn’t so effective any more due to spammers using the tactic to trick people into opening email messages.

– Bounce rates have dropped again during the last six months, so more messages are getting through.

Bear in mind the above figures are averages across multiple industries. MailerMailer provide industry specific results in their free report which you can download here.. I also have a few articles with helpful tips relating to the above, including: